Off the Shelf: Arcadia, issue #3

3.5 instead of 4. Jaime, the hack wizard, rescues Giacomo from the Arcadian enforcers & together they go looking for Coral. Digital Lee learns about analog Lee & is used as an experiment by the Arcadians to make contact with him in order to spy on the Meat. Analog Lee becomes the new leader of the server farm & suspects those in charge of Arcadia are up to something. Sam & digital Lee make separate deals with the people in power in order to preserve their family.

The plot thickens & gives us some tasty new details to savor–Paknadel reveals more of his main conflict through a philosophy lesson in Coral’s class. Analog Lee is starting to seem like the more interesting of the two Lees. He broods, argues with himself & racks his brain trying to figure out how he survived the last plague & his family didn’t. (Also, the guy is ready to throw down with wolves in a blizzard. How can you not resist him?) Digital Lee just seems bland beside him even as he gives his handlers in this issue plenty of attitude. Hopefully that will change as our story continues.

I’m sort of torn over how the anomalies in the Arcadian code work. On one hand, we have rogue code that permanently destroys things, but on the other hand, we have Giacomo who has “innate root access” but doesn’t have the same amount of destructive power from what readers can see. How far does this rabbit hole mystery go? Guess there’s really only one way to find out. . .